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VELKOMIN. WELCOME.

Norse Mythology for Smart People provides reliable, well-documented information on the enthralling mythology and religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.

“Odin the Wanderer” by Georg von Rosen (1886)

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What Is Norse mythology?

Before the Norse (a.k.a. the Vikings) converted to Christianity during the Middle Ages, they had their own vibrant native pagan religion that was as harshly beautiful as the Nordic landscape to which it was intimately connected. The centerpiece of that religion was what we today call “Norse mythology:” the set of religious stories that gave meaning to the Vikings’ lives. These myths revolved around gods and goddesses with fascinating and highly complex characters, such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki. The Norse religion that contained these myths never had a true name – those who practiced it just called it “tradition.” However, people who continued to follow the old ways after the arrival of Christianity were sometimes called “heathens,” which originally meant simply “people who live on the heaths” or elsewhere in the countryside, and the name has stuck. Religions are attempts by mankind to reach the numinous, and the Norse religion was of course no exception. It provided a means of doing this that was fitting for the Vikings’ time and place. Even though some aspects of it may strike the modern reader as bizarre, if we approach it with the open mind it deserves, we can recognize within it the common human quest to live life in the presence of the transcendent majesty and joy of the sacred. And even though it’s been a thousand years since the last Vikings laid down their swords, people today continue to be inspired by the vitality and wonder of the Norse myths and the gods who inhabit them. For the Vikings, the world as they found it was enchanted – that is, they didn’t feel the need to seek salvation from the world, but instead delighted in, and marveled at, “the way things are,” including what we today would call both “nature” and “culture.” Their religion and myths didn’t sugarcoat the sordidness, strife, and unfairness of earthly life, but instead acknowledged it and praised the attempt to master it through the accomplishment of great deeds for the benefit of oneself and one’s people. A life full of such deeds was what “the good life” was for the Vikings.

thor midgard serpent jormungand jormungandr snake ragnarok battle poison norse myth mythol
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Who Were the Vikings?

The Vikings were seafaring raiders, conquerors, explorers, settlers, and traders from modern-day Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland who ventured throughout much of the world during the Viking Age (roughly 793-1066 CE). They traveled as far east as Baghdad and as far west as North America, which they discovered some five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. They spoke the Old Norse language, wrote in runes, and practiced their ancestral religion. The Vikings were motivated to sail from their homelands by timeless, universal human desires: wealth, prestige, and power. As in most human societies, those aims were intertwined for the Vikings; those who had more wealth typically had more prestige and power, and vice versa. The Vikings sought wealth in both its portable form – gold, silver, gemstones, and the like – and in the form of land. We have the Vikings to thank for our present understanding not only of their own pre-Christian religion and mythology, but of that of the other Germanic peoples as well. Thanks to the Old Norse poems, treatises, and sagas that were written during or relatively soon after the Viking Age, we have a much, much fuller picture of what the Vikings’ religion was like (despite the many unfortunate holes that nevertheless remain in that picture) than we do for the religions of any of the other pre-Christian Germanic peoples. But from the little that we do know about those religions directly, they seem to have been variations on common themes that were also shared by the Norse, so we can use the Norse sources to help us reconstruct those hoary religions, too.

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Who Are the Germanic peoples?

The Germanic peoples are one of the indigenous peoples of northern Europe, along with the Celts, Sami, Finns, and others. Historically, they’ve occupied much of Scandinavia, Iceland, the British Isles, and continental Europe north of the Alps. Their best-known representatives are the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, and the continental Germanic tribes, but they included many other groups as well. In the modern era, they – we – are spread out across the world.

While there were certainly regional and temporal variations in the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic peoples, there was nevertheless a common core worldview, cosmology, and, to a large extent, a common pantheon as well.

If you’re a person of northern European descent (including English, Scottish, German, and northern French descent), it’s a safe bet that you’ve got some Germanic blood in you. That means, in turn, that it’s a safe bet that some of your ancestors practiced something very close to the religion represented by Norse mythology.

Of course, you very well may still find Norse/Germanic mythology to be fascinating and illuminating if you don’t have any Germanic in your ancestry. Mythologies are certainly expressions of a particular person or people, but they’re far from only that; there tends to be a spark of something more timeless and universal in them as well.

Til árs ok friðar,


Alexander Hansen.

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THE KNOWLEDGE OF TYR


Tyr is an unsung and largely forgotten god by today's neo-pagans. When most of us think of the Norse warrior gods, visions of Thor and his hammer flash before our eyes, and when we think of leadership or royalty, we see Odin and perhaps Freyr. Yet Tyre was very important to our ancestors, as evidenced by the fact that one day of the week is named after him and two of the eight major holidays are dedicated to him.

Much of Tyr's mythology is now lost, except for the story of the binding of the wolf Fenrir, the son of Loki and Angrboda, as told in the prose Edda. In short, the Norns warn the gods that Fenris is dangerous and will one day kill Odinn. The gods, alarmed, decide that they must bind him. They create a strong chain and ask Fenrir if he is stronger than the chain. He allows the gods to try to bind him so that he can prove his strength. He easily breaks this chain and the next one, which is twice as strong.



But when they try a magic ribbon made by the dwarves, Fenrir, suspicious, raises the stakes because he fears that despite their promises, they will untie him if he does not manage to free himself. Not wanting to be called a coward, he finally agrees to be bound if one of the gods puts his hand in his mouth as a token of loyalty. "And each of the Aesir looked at the other, and neither of them would lose his hand, until Tyr reached out his right hand and put it in the wolf's mouth." Needless to say, the wolf can't free himself and they don't untie him. Tyr loses his hand, the wrist becomes known as the "wolf joint" and Tyr takes the name Wolf Leavings.


Tuesday is named after Tyre because in the Roman calendar, this day was the day of Mars, and the Romans associated Tyre with Mars. This seems strange since we have no myth associating Tyre with the battle, but the Fenrir connection gives us some insight into the association. Fenrir is the wild beast that knows no bounds, and because of his trustworthiness and honor, Tyr alone can chain him.



Nordic warriors are often associated with the image of the berserker, the rampaging warrior. But it is Tyr's self-discipline that allows the warrior to fight his power. Moreover, the true warrior wants nothing more than justice, which is why he must bind the chaotic forces that would destroy him. Tyre only fights the just war.


Dumézil argues that Tyr, (also Tiwaz and Zio, related to Zeus), is more correctly understood as the legal half of the dual primary function of law and magic. Odinn gives up an eye for a more magical or mystical sense of vision, while Tyr sacrifices his hand so that the violence of war is bound by cosmic justice.


Just as the eye must be sacrificed for true vision, the right hand, a symbol of honor (as in the handshake), must be sacrificed for true justice. It is not uncommon for figures of primary function to undergo some sort of mutilation (for example, the Celtic Nuada of the Silver Hand and the Roman heroes Horatius Cocles and Mucius Scaevola). Tyre's weapon was the spear, another sign of deities of primary function.


Some of the symbols associated with Tyre are the spear, the hand or glove and the North Star called the Star of Tyre or the nail. Medieval fairs began by raising a pole in the center with a glove on top. With the cry, "the gauntlet is up," the Fair was opened, and the law of the Fair went into effect. A Saxon runic poem states that the star of Tyre remains faithful to the princes.


Tyre is associated with two festivals, Disting (Imbolg) and Thingstide (Lughnasadh). Both are thingstide, in which the people can ask for the law to be exercised on their behalf. Disting is the time of swearing (the signing of war bands and Viking crews), as it is the beginning of the war season. Thingstide, the end of the war season, is the annual period of treaty making, marriages and was the time for trials.


Legal practices, such as wergild and strictly controlled duels, were not abstract, but were designed to stop a fight. Tyre's loss of his hand to Fenrir in a knowingly false link may have resulted in what Dumézil called "a pessimistic view of the law" where we do what we must to keep the peace.


The followers of Tyre must not only keep their oaths, but must also take an active role in the enforcement of justice. Their judgment must include both sides of the situation. After all, it is because Tyr is the only one willing to feed Fenrir that Fenrir trusts him.


In today's world, an eco-warrior following Tyr would recognize that while the paper mill is cutting down trees, the recycling mill may be producing more pollution. True justice is served not by allowing violent emotions to govern our actions, but by binding violence both within ourselves and in that which threatens the justice and peace of our world...



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Finally, if you want to learn more about the Nordic shamanism’ conception of learning and experiences in general .

Looking for more great information on Nordic shamanism ?

While this site provides the ultimate online introduction to the topic, my book Northern shaman provides the ultimate introduction by an Völva and a shaman who are not like the others . I’ve also written a popular list of The 10 Best Norse Mythology Books, which you’ll probably find helpful in your pursuit.






 

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